The Marine Museum at Fall River is a cultural gem and contains a wealth of Fall River Maritime History especially Steam Ship and Titanic memorabilia. Discover the art, books, models and many treasures the Marine Museum holds. This is a must see
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The Marine Museum at Fall River is a cultural gem and contains a wealth of Fall River Maritime History especially Steam Ship and Titanic memorabilia. Discover the art, books, models and many treasures the Marine Museum holds. This is a must see resource for landlubbers and mariners alike.

Carol Gafford is a public librarian, family historian, amateur archivist and book savior. She is currently the youth services/outreach librarian at the Swansea Public Library and volunteers for several museum and historical societies including the Marine Museum at Fall River, the Swansea Historical Society and the Bristol Historical and Preservation society. She is the editor of Past Times, the Massachusetts Society of Genealogists and is always looking for a new project to take on.

"We were Americana before Americana was cool," said Tara Nevins, singer/guitarist/fiddler/accordionist with the band Donna the Buffalo, which performs at the Narrows Center in Fall River on Sunday night. No music fan could disagree that the quintet Nevin founded with singer-guitarist and pedal steel player Jeb Puryear back around 1989 certainly embodies the sound and feel of American roots music.

Like many Americana bands, Donna the Buffalo crosses and blends so many musical styles it defies easy description. There's the old time fiddle music that initially drew Nevins and Puryear to each other, but of course both grew up hearing rock 'n' roll so that's always an underpinning too, and various songs may veer between country-rock and folk-rock, with strong bluegrass flavorings. But these musicians also developed a real taste for ever more joyous forms of expression, which led them to reggae, and Cajun and zydeco. It was her fascination with the latter two styles that led Nevins to take up the accordion, which soon became as much a staple of their shows as the fiddle.

Along the way, Donna the Buffalo became one of those underground, grassroots sensations on the jamband scene, earning a national name and reputation for scintillating concerts. The band out of Trumansburg, New York also followed their love of summer festivals into founding a few of their own, like the Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival near their hometown, and the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival in North Carolina. This year their newest festival, in the Miami area, looks ahead to its second year.

Donna the Buffalo has released nine albums over the years, the most recent being 2008's "Silverlined," but they are putting the finishing touches on their tenth, "Tonight, Tomorrow, and Yesterday," due for May release on Sugar Hill Records.

All of which makes their swing through Massachusetts this weekend something to savor for music fans, even if you're not yet part of 'The Herd" as their loyal fans are called. Donna the Buffalo plays Pearl Street in Northampton on Friday night, the Center for the Arts in Natick on Saturday night, and the Narrows Center in Fall River on Sunday night. (As of press time, all three shows were still on.)

When we caught up with Nevins she was coming from a session where the band had been sequencing the forthcoming album, and driving her truck along some muddy upstate New York roads. We wondered if the recording process is difficult for a band that is famous for not ever using setlists, but flying by the seat of their pants in live settings.

"I think it's a different kind of creative process," said Nevins. "In the studio we can have different audio quality, and try out new songs, or old songs we've never recorded. We're always writing new music, so we've got new songs to polish up all the time. Today we were sequencing the CD, and the next step is mastering it, and we're aiming for a May release."

Nevins and Puryear write all of the original Donna the Buffalo material, and at last count they had over 180 of their own tunes in the songbook--any one of which might pop up at a given concert.

"We write separately--we don't collaborate," noted Nevins. "Once we get a song done, we bring it to the whole band, and then we all work up the arrangements. Jeb and I write songs all the time, but on our own, and they are never co-writes."

The two songwriters may have slightly different styles, so in a live setting they will commonly switch back and forth, between some of his and some of hers.

"We just alternate during our sets," said Nevins. "We might do two in a row maybe from me, and then a couple of his. On the songs I wrote I usually play guitar, where I'll play fiddle or accordion on Jeb's songs. In some ways our songwriting is very similar, coming from personal experience. We might write about romance, or unrequited love, or people we've known. I think Jeb's songs can be more politically motivated, but there are times I will try to express a viewpoint or message too."

The origins of the band are just simple and organic: Nevins and Puryear met and discovered a shared love of old time music, especially fiddle music, and began jamming together. Before long she was writing songs, and the pair assembled a band to play out. Donna the Buffalo's lineup also includes Mark Raudabaugh on drums, David McCracken on keyboards, and Kyle Spark on bass.

"I grew up around all kinds of music," said Nevins. "I think we all did, and what kind of music anyone ends up playing is just a continuation of who we are. You couldn't go into any other form of music, for example, if it was not one you loved. I played classical violin for instance, while growing up, but I basically quit after college because I realized that was not what I wanted to do."

" When I was introduced to fiddle music, I liked it way better," Nevins said with a laugh. "I met Jeb and we began playing with fiddles and banjos and eventually I got an accordion and started writing songs. Then we added some electrified instruments. How we arrived at this style was just a natural progression--it just happens to you. You're drawn to the music you love most, and the music that is the most fun to play."

Over the years, Nevins and Puryear have both released solo albums, including her even-more-rootsy 2011 release "Wood and Stone," also on Sugar Hill, which was produced by Bob Dylan Band guitar ace Larry Campbell, and recorded at Levon Helm's studio in Woodstock.

"I think my recent CD was even more Americana than our band stuff," said Nevins. "It's more acoustic, with Cajun and more oldtime traditional aspects. Usually when we do solo albums, it might include songs we haven't done with the band, or just versions of songs the band has done, but doesn't play very often."

Another notable project Nevins was involved with was her 2009 stint touring with BK3, which was the jamband supergroup fronted by Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann. Obviously, for any musicians playing roots-based improvisational music, the Grateful Dead are a touchstone.

"Playing with BK3 was an amazing experience," said Nevins. "The Grateful Dead were certainly playing this so-called Americana music way before anybody else, and they've left an amazing legacy. Just as the Dead had their followers, Deadheads, following them all around, we have The Herd, which has been likened to the Deadheads. Of course they're on a much larger scale than we are, but what I think we have in common is that people just love the music and the whole vibe around the bands. The concerts became a real gathering, a real happening, and we've tried to also create that kind of feeling."

"But, for me to be invited to play with Bill Kreutzmann, and end up singing three songs with them every night, was a very humbling honor for me," Nevins added. "It was an incredible experience to play music with those people."

Perhaps one major factor that today's bands can use, which was mostly unavailable to the Dead, is the online community, where fans of bands like Donna the Buffalo can stay in constant touch with each other, and the band, through social media.

"There's definitely more access to your audience at your fingertips now," Nevins agreed. "You are no longer totally dependent on the old ways of promotion, whether advertising or even articles in the paper. Being on a major label is not a requirement anymore. Social networks have made everything about promotion much more accessible: it's all literally in the hands of the musicians themselves, and while that means more work for us, I actually like it. You do all you can do for your own career, and I think it's great to be able to do that."

"We have been very fortunate to be on Sugar Hill," Nevins added. "They are more of a boutique label, very high quality and very dedicated to the music and what is best for the musicians. But basically, they are music fans first and foremost, and they take good care of us."

And as music fans themselves, the members of Donna the Buffalo view their involvement in founding music festivals as just a normal result.

"That all started because we love festivals," Nevins chuckled. "We'd always come home and talk about what we liked or thought we could improve about various festivals we played. So, about 20 years ago we decided to start our own. Now, we're involved in three more, with this new one in Florida--going into its second year-- being our fourth incarnation. As time has gone on we are not really running these fests--we are too busy ourselves, so we have found somebody else to back them and run them. But we remain involved in different ways, suggesting bands and programs and so on."